So, my beloved Sooners will make a decision about leaving the Big XII in “3 days to 3 weeks” or something like that. 
Please someone… give me some info…
What is it about the Texas TV deal that pissed everyone off?
What is it about these “super conferences” that are so great?
wouldn’t a conference that has 15 or 16 teams in it be worse for the teams themselves? (Except maybe in terms of making money for the schools?
Did you think anything else mattered? Not trying to be snarky…it’s all about the Benjamins. Always has been, always will be.
The B10 Network changed everything. You know, the old stodgy B10 that never did anything innovative.
Many thought that the B10 Network would fail. It’s turned out to be a huge success and a monster money maker for the schools. Essentially, that is why Nebraska is in the B10. Now, other major conferences have to copy.
BYU thinks that the BYU channel can give them enough exposure to go it as an independent. Good luck.
Texas established their own network which pissed off the rest of the B12. Texas, being the arrogant Texans that they are, wanted favoritism and act like the Notre Dame of the South. “Give us what we want or we won’t play ball because we’re too good for the rest of you.”
A&M had enough and bolted the B12. Now the B12 is falling apart, mostly due to the Longhorns greed. It was bad enough having the B10 with 11 teams, now we may have the B12 with 9 teams.
Now things are up for grabs. Missouri and Kansas to the B10? Oklahoma to the Pac 10? Who knows. Texas may get what they wanted all along. That is, to be the only team in the B12 conference and to be guaranteed the championship every year.
A & M is going to regret moving to the SEC in short order.
First, they’re going to find that, in a typical year, they’re only the 8th or 9th best football program in the SEC.
Second, they’re going to find that Alabama, Auburn, Florida, et al. are joining LSU in stealing the best players out of East Texas, right under the Aggies’ noses.
Third, Oklahoma long ago replaced A & M as the Longhorns’ biggest rival. The Aggies will miss THEIR old rival more than the Longhorns will miss the Aggies, who’ve become an afterthought in Austin.
But if they need the money in order to improve their program, where were they going to get it? Not in the B12.
Conversely, won’t being in the SEC open things up a bit for A&M’s recruiting? I doubt they get many kids from Florida, but now they might. Besides, U of Texas already gets the top kids from the state every year, and OU, Nebraska, and Missouri all have used the state for recruiting in the past. If those schools get fewer TX kids by moving to the Pac12/16 and BigTen but some SEC teams move in their place, it’s effectively a wash.
Anything’s possibl;e, but which seems more likely to you:
Elite athletes from East Texas getting invited to play at Florida and screaming, “Oh, YEAH!!!”
Elite athletes from Florida chomping at the bit to play in in Bryan, Texas.
I always have to add this disclaimer: though I live in Austin, I’m not a Texan and didn’t go to UT. I’m a New Yorker and went to Columbia (where the football team didn’t win a single game while I was an undergrad).
Hence, I’m NOT sniping at the Aggies out of Longhorn pride. I understand perfectly why the Aggies (like several other teams) resented UT and can’t blame them for seeking greener pastures. I just don’t think they’re going to be happy when they realize that they’re even farther from the top than they were in the Big 12, and that Gene Chizik and Will Muschamp (who have lots of experience recruiting in Texas) are getting the players the Aggies were counting on.
The Longhorns Network is a child of ESPN. They had rights to the opening game but only one or two small local (I live in Austin) providers actually paid for the network. As a result, the game was only shown in a few bars and the network has only been purchased by a small number of customers. Since I have Time Warner, I would not have been able to watch the game because Time Warner was not able to come to an agreement with ESPN/Longhorns Network. This did not bother me much, since I am a Big East follower (originally from NJ). I still ended up getting to see the games I was interested in this weekend.
Because it’s the Longhorn Network, not the Big12 Network. In most conferences, TV deals are done at the conference level with all schools sharing equally. Texas basically told the rest of the conference “Go fuck yourselves, I got mine, bitch.” The schools are now beginning to wake up to the fact that Texas thinks it doesn’t need them as much as they need it. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the Big12 fractures (which is starting to seem more likely than not) and Texas winds up independent.
And the tv deal was on top of unequal money split in the conference in the first place, unlike sec, big10 and pac12
Texas initially invited A&M to go halfsies on a network. The A&M brass were convinced it would not work, or would cost the schools money to get broadcast. UT decided to pursue the idea alone, and got a surprise $300 million dollar windfall from ESPN for the rights. A&M then asked to be part of the deal again, and UT told them to piss off. A&M stomped right out of the conference.
Not that I disbelieve you, but cite? I had not heard that story.
And now OU is threatening to leave the conference, and take Oklahma State with it.
When A&M first made noises about going to the SEC, there was a strong rumor that the B12 would go after Arkansas. That probably won’t come to pass now.
It seems to me that you could take A&M, OU, OSU and Arkansas, add the want-to-be-big-time-again TCU, throw Texas Tech and Baylor and one more school (Houston? Rice? SMU?) and reconstitute the Southwest Conference.
I would note that the article says “partner” and A&M’s AD seems to imply that it wasn’t an equal partnership - which would fit with UT’s history where money is concerned.
In other words, I remain skeptical that UT offered “lowly” A&M halvsies.
With all due respect, this is, and has always been, a silly argument. By that logic, Trent Richardson should have gone to Florida. Mark Ingram should have gone from Michigan to, I dunno, Miami. Or USC. But they both ended up in podunk, redneck Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Why? Because they play good ball in Tuscaloosa, and because it’s a fine venue to prepare them for a professional football career.
Piecing together from other articles, it’s obvious the only two men who have any idea what type of splits were discussed aren’t saying what they are, if the talks even got that far. A 50-50 split probably wouldn’t have been realistic just based on the “market value” (for lack of a better term) of the two programs. But the point is at the time, UT was looking for a partner, thought they needed a partner, and A&M was in the position to negotiate a deal.
Ingram made his decision between Alabama and Michigan STATE, not lowly U of Michigan. His father was a star at MSU. For Mark, it was a good decision but a loss for MSU. And, as an area of cultivating football talent, the state of Michigan is very fertile ground. Maybe not as good as Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio or California, but close.
I am very aware of where Mark Senior played. I meant the state of Michigan, not the university.
Exactly- which is why kids from East Texas will be a lot more responsive when Nick Saban comes courting them than kids in Florida will be when Mike Sherman comes to THEIR houses.
Kids want to win championships and eventually go to the NFL- and if they can have a hell of a good time while doing so, that’s a MAJOR bonus.
A & M doesn’t offer kids ANY of those things.